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HERITAGE HIKES & WALKSMAROON TRAIL
A hiking trail used by the Maroons over 300 years ago, the five-mile Cunha Cunha Pass Maroon Trail, which links the parishes of Portland and St Thomas, was the site of some of the most intense battles between British colonists and African runaway slaves known as Maroons who eventually won their independence after years of fighting.
Visitors will be exposed to the history of the trail and the Maroon characters such as Nanny and Cudjoe who used the trail, as well as the natural environs and the unique flora and fauna. This is also the home of the indigenous swallow-tail butterfly. The life and times of the Jamaican Maroons is a story of an indomitable foe, a people whose survival depends on their wit and tenacity, form a part of this terrible saga in the history of blacks in the New World and where we are today. Within a year of the British conquest of Jamaica, "the rebellious slaves" in the hills, had made themselves so formidable that, like the Spanish officials of Panama, the British soon conceived that they were a greater danger that were the Spaniards. Indeed, the early Maroons were "thorns and pricks" in the side of the British, they plunder and burn plantations, captured slaves and killed British soldiers who ventured out too far into the woods. The Maroons victories against the British were so numerous that eventually the British signed a peace treaty with them giving the Maroons sovereignty over their land in the east and west of the island. |
HERITAGE NEWSHeritage Jamaica Ltd.
www.heritageja.com
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The hike starts in the Maroon village of Hayfield. Trained local guides lead the walk through the eastern Blue Mountains crossing from south to north through the pass known as Cunha Cunha. It ends at Bowden Pen which is at the southernmost end of the Rio Grande river valley road. Lunch is served at Ambassabeth cottages situated on the banks of the mighty Rio Grande river.
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